Kanittha Thepasak thought she was dizzy as the earth began to sway at her home in Bangkok on Friday. Then she heard a strange sound, saw a light moving, and threw it onto the curtains, and found the car swaying like a boat at sea.
The streets were filled with surfers staring at apartment buildings, glass office buildings and surrounding unfinished buildings. Now Ms. Kanittha can hardly imagine returning to the office where she spent most of her time. It is on the 29th floor.
“I’m scared, I’m worried,” she said. “The Thais don’t have a basic understanding of earthquakes because we’ve never really experienced them.”
The earthquake that destroyed Myanmar on Friday had less damage in neighbouring Thailand, but its sheer force (7.7 magnitude 7.7) poured Bangkok into the streets. Two days later, the Thai government and engineers inspected hundreds of damaged structures to ensure they could be taken up, which still darkens the idea of daily life, including increasingly including living and working on the ground dozens of stories.
The most devastating scene in Thailand comes from the complete collapse of the Bangkok building under construction in Bangkok. At least 11 workers died as of Sunday, but about 75 workers remained unmentioned, and rescue workers continued to pull the rubble carefully, trained with more than a dozen excavators and eight dogs to find the dead and lives.
Andy Redmond, a member of the K9 team, said all the signals on Sunday pointed to the corpse, and the smell was so strong that it was difficult for dogs to find individual remains.
“It’s a learning curve,” he said, resting between search tasks, which kept him on the scene since Friday afternoon. “You can’t train for this.”
Video of the dramatic fall of the building seems to be inscribed in many people’s minds, changing the residents’ perception of the city. Bangkok has been moving, up and out for about a decade, with its subway and Skytrain expansion driving the architectural boom.
But now, at least twelve cranes hovering around the skyline, once demonstrating the ominous quality of the steel and concrete bones that once showed economic growth.
Nilbanjong Somreutal Nilbanjong, 34, found himself staring at a downtown building as he returned home on Sunday afternoon. When asked what she was thinking, she said, “Looking at it makes me scared.”
Small building elevator climbs onto the exterior through pink scaffolding. She rolled her phone until she found a photo of Rubber Mountain a few miles away-the collapsed building with zero ground in Bangkok.
The goose bumped into her arms, she shivered.
“I’m afraid it will happen again,” she said.
Government officials are trying to calm people’s tension and keep people up to date.
After Friday’s earthquake, Thai Prime Minister Paetontarn Shinawatra immediately issued an emergency alarm warning people to remain alert for aftershocks over the next 24 hours.
By that night, she tried to assure the public by declaring that the situation was stable and residents could return to their homes.
On Saturday, she rode the Bangkok elevated railway (called Skytrain) to show that the train is safe. After the earthquake, the system was turned off and checked before reopening most lines.
But even if the city has reappeared with normal people – shopping malls and markets full of trains rumble on streets filled with motorcycles – many are struggling to deal with what they think is only happening elsewhere, such as Japan or Taiwan.
Ms. Carnita said the experience was so chaotic that her mind ran wildly at the memory of the description she saw in Japanese comics or comics. disaster.
Many people say they are not necessarily afraid, but they are forced to ask unexpected questions: Are buildings really safe behind glass exterior walls? What if there are cracks that cannot be seen? What if there is a huge aftershock?
Jiraporn Jaichob, 41, the owner of a drink stall at the time of Temblor’s attack, said she was making plans for future disasters.
She has been considering buying a transistor radio as she sees a drop in coverage of her phone. She also created a family bag for the family with key documents and supplies.
“With this earthquake, we learned that we don’t know what will happen on a given day,” she said.
“I can die anytime, anywhere, and I know, it’s our destiny,” she added. “But at least we have to take care of our lives.”
Thailand upgraded its earthquake-resistant building regulations in 2007, and experts say the vast majority of buildings in the city are obviously strong enough to withstand earthquake events that should still be considered rare. Still, some engineers have asked for greater scrutiny and potential escalation of standards and enforcement.
“Look at Japan – they keep making laws and designs,” said Susta Tvee Suwansawat, a professor of civil engineering at King Mongolia University and former chairman of the Thai Engineers Committee. “We should do the same.”
The collapse of the 30-storey building could be a turning point. Dr. Suchatvee said it should never succumb, suggesting something went wrong with design, execution or supervision.
Four years after construction, it was built by China’s state-owned company No. 10 Engineering Group. The Thai government has pledged to investigate and report early findings within a week.
But, like other horrifying buildings collapsed – the apartment tower in Surfez, Florida, which killed 98 people in 2021; or the landing of the World Trade Center in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks – the loss of destruction seems likely to continue.
On “Down Sun,” shock, sadness and dust mixed in the collapsed place, gathering a large crowd. Volunteer rescuers from police and military wearing jumpsuits ride bicycles in the area. At one time, a crane held two observers on the top of Ruble Hill, while the man in a yellow hat stared from below.
On the periphery, the father of a Pakistani worker told reporters that people prayed in temples across Thailand and that he hoped at least half of the workers would live.
Aubonrat Setnawet also hopes for good news for her husband. He was on the 23rd floor of the building when the earthquake struck. She has also been there, working, but on the ground floor, not far from where she sat on a soft plastic chair near the hard metal fence on Sunday.
“No update,” she said quietly. All she could point out was the more relatives next to her, as the noisy grinding of excavators and dump trucks.
At the market across the street, Jatupol Sawangphanich, 42, placed tape on the gap in a metal grate to protect his tropical fish business.
“Whenever they lift the rubble, the dust will fly in this direction,” he said.
Next to him, the lights of the usually busy shopping mall changed. Its structural integrity still needs to be tested.
“This happened in Bangkok,” he said. “I would rather not go to tall buildings at all.”
